Photo © SOM
The world’s tallest twisting tower — the 75-story, 1,010-foot-tall Cayan Tower in Dubai, which rotates a full 90 degrees from base to top — is a monument to rational thought in the service of art and commerce. Rational thought, because the architects and engineers at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) worked systematically to construct the building with regular components and repeating floor plans. Art, because the building presents itself as a freestanding sculpture visible from across the Dubai Marina. And commerce, because the greatest virtue of repeating floor plans is that they streamline the process of selling the building’s 495 condominium apartment units, which range from studios to four-bedroom duplexes.